Detoxification is not just for the movie stars who abuse painkillers anymore. New evidence has shown that just about everyone needs detox not for drug use, but to clean out the colon, blood system, liver, and other organs that have been building up potentially toxic amounts of unhealthy matter over the years. Lots of people are jumping on the detox diet bandwagon, and for good reason, too.

With all the preservatives, hormones, air pollutants, pesticides, and even fat (think fast food) that gets into our bodies every day, it just makes sense to clean the temple from time to time. You wouldnt go without cleaning the house for very long, and you shouldnt go very long without cleaning out the body, either.

Here are three delicious recipes for detox diets. Give them a try if you want to help cleanse your system and/or lose some weight:

1) Veggie Broth

A head of fresh broccoli
A cup of fresh spinach leaves
A of celery
A pot full of distilled water

Simply cut up the vegetables into very small pieces. Put them in the pot of water, cover, and bring them to a full boil. Then, reduce the heat to a simmer and let all those nutrients seep out of those vegetables into the water. After about thirty minutes, drain the mixture. Discard the vegetables, and drink the broth. Yummy and a good colon cleanser!

2) Tomato-based Hearty Detox Soup

A pot of purified water
A head of green cabbage
Two medium green bell peppers (or one large and one small)
An onion
Three stalks of celery
Three carrots
One-third to one-half of a pound of fresh or frozen green beans
One or two cans of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce

Slice the cabbage into strips. Chop the peppers into bite-size pieces or smaller if you prefer. Cut up the onion, celery, and carrots into pieces of the same size. Prepare the green beans.

Some folks will say to ad the ingredients to the water a little at a time, beginning with the hardest vegetables first. I find that unnecessary. Just throw all the vegetables into the pot of water, cover, and bring to a boil. Then, lower the heat and allow the soup to simmer for several hours. Enjoy!

3) Lemon and Citrus Tea Detox Recipes

Lemon is quickly becoming a popular detox ingredient, probably because of its high citric acid content, vitamin C density, and abundance of bioflavonoids. Besides for all these benefits, there is something that is generally pleasing about the lemon, dont you think? Lemon furniture polish still b rings back childhood memories of helping my mom dust the living room furniture, my dishwashing detergent is lemon-scented, and lemonade on a hot day are you kidding? It gets no better than that.

A glass of grapefruit juice
The juice of one large lemon
Two teaspoons of olive oil
One to two teaspoons of flaxseed oil
Optional a clove of crushed garlic
Optional split the juices to half a glass of grapefruit and half glass of orange
A scoop of your favorite protein powder from the nutrition store

Simply combine the above ingredients in your blender and drink. Try to drink it on an empty stomach; perhaps the first thing in the morning, and be prepared to be cleaned out.

Recipes for detox diets are a sure and fast way to help clean your digestive system out as a whole. However, it is important for you to follow the directions carefully and only use for the length of time that is appropriate.

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You may also know the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet as the Grapefruit Diet. This diet is all about eating certain foods at particular times each day. Each meal will include half a grapefruit which is where it gets the name ‘grapefruit diet’. Although the diet is not actually endorsed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the name of the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet still lives on.

Let’s take a look at the three main meals of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet.

Breakfast – For breakfast each morning you will have a black tea or coffee, half a grapefruit and bread with some protein. For the bread and protein you could have toast with egg, toast with cheese or toast with peanut butter.

Lunch – lunch will also include protein and bread. Some examples of lunch could be toast with a boiled egg, toast with 1/2 cup of tuna or cottage cheese on crackers. You can also have a black tea or coffee with lunch.

Dinner – dinner is the most substantial meal of the day with this diet. Day 1 dinner includes 3 oz lean turkey, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of green beans, 1 apple and 1 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 2 dinner consists of 2 beef franks, 1 cup of cabbage or broccoli, 1/2 cup of carrots, 1/2 a banana and 1/2 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 3 dinner includes 1 cup of tuna, 1 cup of cauliflower, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of melon and 1/2 cup of ice-cream.

Every meal should include 1/2 a grapefruit or 4 oz. of grapefruit juice.

The key to success with this diet plan is that you must drink at least 32 ounces of water a day.

There are a lot of people that swear by this diet and have said you can lose 6 points in the three days of the diet. Here are some of the reasons why this diet is so effective.

1. The number of calories consumed is extremely restricted. Even though the diet includes ice-cream every day you are still only eating around 1200 calories a day.

2. This diet helps to flush out your system and help you to lose a lot of water weight.

3. This is not a permanent weight loss. This is a fast weight loss and if you go right back to your usual eating habits as soon as you finish the 3 days then you will put the weight back on.

So what is the point of dieting for 3 days if you are just going to put it back on? This diet is great if you have an event coming up that you want to lose a few pounds for. If you have a wedding, school reunion or want to fit into your skinny jeans to go to a concert, then this diet can help you to do that.

Although grapefruit is a vital part of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet, there is no proof that it has any magical weight loss qualities. Not everyone likes grapefruit and some people will substitute it for orange during the diet.

Grapefruit does however have 6 grams of fiber in half a grapefruit so when you are eating 3 servings of it a day then you are getting 18 out of the 25 grams of recommended daily fiber. Diets that are high in fiber will help to flush out the system and assist with weight loss. Grapefruit juice though does not have any fiber.

The Mayo Clinic 3 day diet can also be useful to kick-start a diet and give you a fast weight loss to begin your weight loss journey and when you finish the 3 days on this diet you can then move onto a healthy eating plan to lose more weight in a slower time period. The kick-start at the beginning of the diet can help motivate you to continue to eat healthy and lose more weight.

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